Homework, among other things

So I managed to finish my web programming assignment. A big leap, in my eyes, to go from a bit of HTML and CSS on my own time to all-out PHP, MySQL and Javascript, but unimaginably easier and more convenient. Having the ability to use loops to generate a page and only generate the parts you need is pretty nice. So is not having to rewrite every single page. Kind of a pain, however, is getting all the HTML code to still line up in the source code. While not at all necessary, it's still something I like to do as a matter of professionalism.

This weekend I have the task of making a 15 minute presentation about my website (oh boy, and with Steve's MacBook Pro at hand I can finally use Keynote in class!), a short presentation for Systems Analysis about some company offering Software As A Service, filling out an entire lab book with answers, and figuring out how to set up a DHCP server, a VSFTPD server, a backup routine, NIS, LDAP, and a mail server. On SUSE 9.

Yeah, that's gonna be fun, getting to set up obscure software on old software without being given any documentation on how to do any of it. Oh, but it's to "prepare us for the real world, where we might not be told how to do our job". Except in the "real world" (which one are we in now? we're definitely not in Second Life) there's a minimum requirement as to how much you have to know before you can do something. Even The Sims managed to cover that.

All the other stuff isn't so bad. I kind of like giving presentations, especially if I like what I'm talking about. Talking about one of my own projects? That's loads of fun. I love doing that. It's my chance to show off. I'll give it 110%, and hopefully get a similar grade since I managed to put in that much more effort than everyone else.

Making a presentation about something boring? Not bad, but still tolerable if I get to use Keynote.

Filling out a lab book with notes? Boring, but at least it'll boost my mark by 10% (seriously? yeah).

Oh yeah, I'm also expected to do a bit of Christmas shopping and socializing, too. And it's a weekend, so I'm not waking up before noon. This is going to be fun. Assuming Saturday has a 1 PM wake-up time, a 9 PM to 2 AM socializing time, then Sunday has a noon wake-up time, 1 hour finish-up on socializing, then a 11 PM bed time, with about 25% procrastination rate, I've got about 12 hours. The website presentation should take all day Saturday on its own, then the more boring presentation taking up an hour or two on Sunday if I'm lucky, the lab book another hour or two, then the rest of the day can be spent wrestling with SUSE 9. Lovely.

Oh, right, then I have to go on Blackboard and fill out all the course surveys, finish up a few rogue assignments, do a few quizzes, and make sure I'm not missing anything. Awesome.

Not that they could've started giving out this work in any of the 3 months of school we just went through, that would've been too balanced. No, they have to dump it all on us the week before exams. You know, because it's just so terribly easy to do a semester's worth of work in a week. So easy.

Anyway, I think that's enough for one day. I'll be sure to post a status report sometime next week.